


Jinx Knockout

by orsumfenix



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Conversations, Developing Relationship, M/M, Villains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-03-29 15:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13929639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orsumfenix/pseuds/orsumfenix
Summary: They've got him doing menial work, which wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't always stuck doing it with Shima.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this'll probs be an au in abt 2 days but w/e Take This  
> inspired by [this wonderful art!](http://falaffles-mywaffles.tumblr.com/post/166315243440/i-drew-this-like-a-month-ago-in-that-au-where-in)

Yukio is so goddamn sick of Shima Renzou.

When he joined the Illuminati he knew Shima would be there, but he didn’t realise just how many missions they’d get paired up for. Maybe the higher-ups figured their ‘deep history’ of _actually knowing each other_ would make them a good team. It didn’t.

Case in point:

“Wow!” Shima exclaims, holding up his phone. “Yuki, let’s get a selfie with the corpse before we burn it!”

“We’re here to dispose of a body.”

“Yeah, and when we’ve done that it’ll be gone. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Yuki!”

 _“Stop_ calling me Yuki!” Yukio straightens, letting the corpse he’s trying to pull fall to the ground. “Aren’t you going to help me? This thing is heavy, you know.”

Shima smirks, waggling his phone.

“I’ll help you if you get in the selfie with me.”

Yukio is cold. Yukio is tired. He gets in the stupid selfie.

“Huh,” Shima comments when they’ve taken it, squinting at the camera screen. “You’re not smiling. You’re killing the vibes, Okumura.”

“I don’t care.”

“Let’s take another one.”

“Absolutely not!” Yukio squares his shoulders, ready to pull out the ‘I’m a teacher and you’re a student even if we’re the same age’ card, before realising with horror that Shima does, in fact, have more authority than him. Only _slightly_ , and only because Shima’s been doing the whole betrayal thing for longer, but it’s there.

And there is _no way_ Yukio’s giving him the opportunity to lord it over.

“Just – help me burn the body, okay? That’s what we’re here for. If we don’t do it soon we’ll get in trouble.”

“Ooh, scary.” But Shima reluctantly slides his phone away, stepping forwards with an unhealthily wide smile. “So, Okumura-sensei. Let’s start our lesson on body disposal!”

“You,” Yukio starts solemnly, “are the most annoying person I’ve ever met.”

Shima just grins wider.

“I try!”

\--

That evening Shima sends him the selfie with a heart attached. Yukio throws his phone at the wall.

\--

At first, being stuck with Shima all the time wasn’t actually all that bad. Mostly he was just glad to not be the only one who’d up and joined the Illuminati, even if Shima had done that before Yukio even knew him.

By this point he’s pretty sure Shima’s going out of his way to be annoying. He was nowhere _near_ this bad at the Academy, or even when Yukio started here. He’s doing it on purpose. He’s probably just as sick of Yukio and taking it out by acting like even more of a moron than usual.

Sometimes he gives weird speeches about ‘doing what you enjoy’ and how fun committing treason is. They barely make sense, so Yukio’s developed the habit of tuning them out. It barely ever works.

They’re not the only times he’d be better off tuning Shima out.

“I’ve started trying to learn French,” Shima declares, leaning back against the wall. Guard duty is the worst, mostly because Yukio always gets stuck doing it with a Certain Someone. Three guesses who. “It’s the language of love, right? So I figure girls would like it if I called them mon chérie.”

“ _Ma_ chérie,” Yukio corrects. “And your accent is terrible.”

Shima pauses, mouth open.

“Yuki,” he breathes, slowly starting to smile. “You know _French._ ”

“I know the basics. Languages are a useful skill to have. So is shutting up.”

Judging by Shima’s smirk, he clearly gets the hint, but instead of actually following through he leans right into Yukio’s space.

“You should totally teach me French.”

“No.”

“Yes! Oh, come on, Yukio, guard duty is borrring. Let’s spice it up a little!”

Yukio stares straight ahead and tries not to scream.

At the end of their shift he storms straight to Toudou Homare’s office and slams his hands on the table so hard it jerks.  

“I _demand_ you stop pairing me up with Shima!”

Toudou’s only reaction is to look up.

“What’s wrong with Shima?”

“What’s _wrong_ with him?! He’s completely insufferable! And it’s ridiculous that he has _any_ sort of authority over me! He has Yamantaka, yes, but I have Satan’s blue flames!”

“That you can barely control,” Toudou points out, not incorrectly. “One day you _will_ be a leader, but before that you need to experience what it’s like to work underneath one. And not just in the True Cross – here. You need to know our rules inside out, and you can’t work your way up the chain of command before you have better control.”

“I know that. That’s not what I’m contesting. It’s _Shima_.”

“Shima Renzou is a talented exorcist.”

“He’s a spy!”

“For us.”

“For them!”

 _“And_ for us,” she corrects before sighing. “It doesn’t matter what side he’s on, Okumura. In the long run, maybe, but right now? He’s here, he’s helping us, and besides, you and he have mostly been completing menial tasks. It’s not like he poses a huge threat. You’re keeping an eye on him and he’s keeping one on you. It’s win-win.”

Yukio grits his teeth.

“I hate him,” he says. “Intensely.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

Toudou stares for a few moments before shrugging.

“Fine. Starting tomorrow you’ll be paired up with one of the twins. Is that satisfactory?”

Yukio breathes out.

“Yes. Thank you.” Absently, he realises his hands are still on her desk and lifts them. “You won’t regret this.”

“Get out of my office.”

“Right.”

One of the Lundstrom twins. That’s not that bad. Better than Shima, at any rate.

Who just so happens to be the person he sees lingering in the corridor. Feeling unusually gracious due to his newfound freedom, Yukio nods, immediately regretting it when he gets a smirk in return.

“Stop loitering,” he snaps, good mood already gone. “Don’t you have a job to be doing?”

“Nope!”

“Find something.”

Shima’s smirk gets wider.

“You have training in a few minutes, right? I could help.”

“How do you know – never mind, you’re a creep, that’s how.”

Shima just laughs. It’s one of those laughs Suguro always used to smile at but Yukio ends up frowning. “I know because you do it at the same time every day and make a _racket_. Seriously, I can hear it from my room and the twins always threaten to go and beat you up.”

That’s a lie. Probably.

The best upside to being the son of Satan in the Illuminati is he gets his own room. There’s a spare bed in the room Shima shares with the twins, so when Shima first joked that he thought Yukio was going to be joining them he almost turned around and walked straight back to the True Cross.

“I could beat them,” Yukio announces. Shima raises a brow.

“Could you?”

“I have Satan’s flames.”

“Yeah, but your control is _really_ bad and they know it. Plus there’s two of them! And they’re tall. Once Strom hit his head on a doorframe and I thought I was gonna die laughing.”

Yukio shoots him a weird look. “You can tell the difference?”

Shima shoots one right back. “You can’t?”

“Of course I can,” he lies, belatedly realising that he’s standing in a corridor _voluntarily_ talking to someone he hates instead of doing something more productive. Like training. “I should go. I need to work on my control.”

He turns and starts to head towards the training room, refusing to let his feet falter when Shima falls into step beside him.

“I’ll join you!”

“No, you won’t.”

Shima swings round to be right in his face, steadily walking backwards with his hands in his pockets.

“If you want me to leave, you should fight me, Yukio. Prove your strength.”

Yukio takes a deep breath instead of punching him.

“You’re saying we should spar?”

“Totally!”

“No.”

“Oh, come on, teach, why not? It’s not like we’ll hurt each other or anything, it’ll just be good old-fashioned play fighting between a couple of friends!”

Yukio stops dead in the corridor.

“We aren’t friends.”

Shima smirks, halting and folding his arms.

“Oh, really?”

_Fuck he hates him. Why of all the Exwires did it have to be the most annoying, lazy, smug -_

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you’re ready to say I’m not your friend? Because you seem to be running _awfully_ low on those these days.”

Shit.

Shima’s right. Who else could he even consider a friend at the moment? He’s betrayed all his former allies. And in the Illuminati…the twins? Creepy. Toudou? Ew. Lucifer? Even worse.

Yukio starts walking again just for the extra few seconds to think of a response. Somehow Shima’s following footsteps as they approach the training room manage to be even more annoying than his face.

“I don’t need friends to achieve my goals.”

“No man is an island, Yukio.”

“I’m not a man,” he snaps, slamming open the training room door. “I’m a demon.”

Shima laughs as his phone chimes. “So dramatic! But even demons need people to rely on. Why do you think so many become familiars?” He pulls out his phone as Yukio fumes, pouting at the screen. “Damn, Mephisto wants to chat. Guess you’ll have to train alone. But, hey, let’s do this again sometime.”

Once he’s gone Yukio takes several long, deep breaths. If he pushes himself too hard during training that’s nobody’s problem but his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls comment if u enjoyed so ik im not the only one who loves this ship! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> imagine hating the only person u haven't betrayed (& the only reason u haven't betrayed him is bc he betrayed u first)

The next day he’s paired with one of the twins, and it seems like a relief until he realises he dislikes the twins more than he dislikes Shima.

Lund/Strom spends the whole time either in silence, making jokes at Yukio’s expense or slapping him on the back hard enough to dislodge a rib.

He’s tempted to march back to Toudou’s office and demand to be switched again, but he can’t seem fickle. Yukio has to come across calm, in control. He knows what he wants and he has to make it clear so they’ll trust him enough for a promotion.

At training he unleashes blue flames with enough power to melt the candles in one go. Behind him someone whistles.

“What did those poor candles ever do to you?”

‘Someone’ is Shima. Great. That really is the icing on the cake of a fantastic day.

“Go away.”

“Yuki, did you ask for us to stop getting paired together?”

Yukio turns around to see Shima pouting. His uniform’s not even on properly. He’s disorganised. Lazy. Annoying. The only reason they keep him is because of Yamantaka.

The part of him that whispers _Shima’s talented_ gets ignored.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It’s a confession. Shima laughs.

“So cold, Yukio! I can’t believe you just threw our friendship out the window like that. You got rid of me for _Lund_ , of all people.”

“So it was Lund.” Shit. He shouldn’t have said that. Shima smirks.

“I thought you knew the difference?”

“I do. I was testing you.”

“You’re not my teacher anymore, Yukio. School’s out forever! You don’t need to test me anymore.”

“Shut up.”

“Good one.”

Yukio heads to the training room cupboard, pulling out four candles. He can _feel_ Shima’s eyes on him. Freak.

The new candles replace the melted ones. He’s tired of swapping out candles. He’s tired of never being good enough.

“You should really,” Shima says, “join us for a drink.”

It throws Yukio so off balance he blasts the first candle completely, leaving a blob of wax on the floor. Shima whistles.

“I hope those candles weren’t expensive.”

“A drink?!” Yukio demands, ignoring the flushing of his cheeks. His training better not be recorded. If Toudou sees that lack of control he’s fucked. “With you?”

“With _us_.”

“Who’s ‘us’?” he asks, already knowing the answer. Shima shrugs.

“The twins. Y’know, the ones you can totally tell apart?”

Oh god. Not more of Lund. He couldn’t take it.

“And I’d want to get a drink with you _why?_ ”

“Uh, to relax? Clear your head? No offence teach, but you seem kind of…” Shima’s eyes focus on the melted wax. “Stressed.”

“I’m stressed because you’re here.”

“Pink is a calming colour.”

“I’m not talking about your hair. I’m talking about your personality. And your roots are showing.” It’s not even a lie. He can see the black starting to clash at the bottom of Shima’s hair. “It looks better dark.”

“Girls like pink,” Shima says calmly. He runs a hand though his hair. “I need more dye. It’s been harder to get after I moved into a floating base. Who’d have thought, right?”

Yukio refuses to laugh.

“But while we’re here,” Shima continues, not noticing Yukio’s struggles, “we should spar.”

Christ.

“What? No.”

“C’monnn, why not?”

“I don’t need to prove myself to you.” He doesn’t know why that feels like a lie. It isn’t one. The only person he needs to prove himself to is Lucifer. Not his irritating ex-student. “Besides, my flames are stronger than yours. And using them doesn’t drain me the way using Yamantaka drains you. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

Shima stares, looking like he’s trying to hold in a laugh.

“Are you saying you won’t spar me because you’d win?”

“Yes.” Great. Now he feels uncomfortable. It’s not helped by Shima letting the laugh come right out.

“Oh my god. That’s amazing. You actually think you’d win?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he snaps, turning to face the candles. There’s three non-melted ones left. His chance to send a message.

“Because I’ve been training with Yamantaka since I was seven and you’ve only just inherited the blue fames,” Shima points out, which is an amazing point and not one Yukio wants to concede.

Carefully, he raises his hand and concentrates on the second candle. Rin can light them with just his mind now, but Yukio finds that hand motions help. He’s channelling power. Rage. Sadness.

All those feelings go into his hand and light the candle.

It’s a big step. It’s a _really_ big step. He lit it and it didn’t melt, he showed perfect control, he might _actually be able to do this_ –

“See?” he says, turning back around. His heart is hammering but he keeps it together. “The blue flames only burn what the user wishes them to. There’s not even a risk of me hurting you. I’m just…out of your league.”

For the first time since Yukio got here Shima looks impressed. He stares at the candle.

“With more practise? Yeah, you will.” Shima’s smile seems…genuine. It’s not a smirk. It’s not a leer. God it’s creepy. “I’m gonna go for that drink now. You sure you don’t wanna join?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. If you change your mind let me know.” Shima gets halfway to the door before stopping. “Oh, and remember – it’s not me you have to beat. It’s Rin.”

Yukio’s blood turns cold. It’s still cold when he’s left alone in the room.

The next candle melts. So does the one after that.

Yukio lowers his hand. Grimaces. A fluke, then. Wonderful.

He slowly clears the candles away, determinately keeping his hands steady. He isn’t out of Shima’s league. Not yet. Not without the control Shima practises with the ease of someone who’s had half his life to master the flames.

He’s seen Shima fight. He’s seen him use the K’rik and the flames at once. Yukio can only use a gun _or_ blue flames. Not both. And not with control of the latter.

If they had a fight? Yukio probably wouldn’t win.

\--

It’s like Lund knows Shima annoys him and is doing his best to outdo it.

He’s grunting more. His back-slaps are harder. His ability to hold a conversation is non-existent.

Shima probably told him to drive Yukio nuts when they were having that drink, the prat.

They have to get a helicopter down to the surface and Lund asks him to re-state the mission about a thousand times. He can’t have forgotten it. The Illuminati would never hire someone with a shoddy memory or a shoddy work ethic. Well. Not unless they had a powerful demon familiar.

Yukio can’t believe he’s thinking this, but he wants Shima to be his partner again.

At least with Shima he could have a conversation, even if most of the time it was an argument. He always remembered what their mission actually was. And, weirdly, his warped enthusiasm for betraying everyone he’s ever known made Yukio feel less shit for grudgingly betraying everyone he’s ever known. Like it’s not as bad if someone else does it worse.

Can he ask for Shima back now?

Absolutely not.

“I’ve made my bed and now I have to lie in it,” Yukio mutters. Lund stares.

“You’re really weird, Okumura,” he says, and it’s the longest sentence Yukio’s ever heard him say.

“It makes sense in context,” Yukio replies, and then doesn’t tell him the context. “Are we almost there?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’ll be glad to get out of this helicopter.”

Lund grunts. Christ, it’s like working with an ape.

The helicopter lands pretty soon. The engines die and Yukio looks right at Lund.

“I want to work with Shima again.”

Lund nods. He’s fucking smirking.

“He said you’d say that.”

\--

“You can’t resist me,” Shima proclaims no less than one minute after finding out they’re paired back together. “I knew it! I’m just too attractive. Surely if even you can’t resist then I should have girls desperate to date me?”

“Lund asked for us to be re-assigned,” Yukio snaps. It isn’t technically a lie. The request was put in by Lund. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“Sure.” Shima’s smirk looks a little too much like a real smile. “How were the missions _sans moi?_ ”

“They were -” - boring - “- fine.”

“We should get a drink. Catch up.”

“There’s nothing to catch up on.”

“Um, are you sure? ‘Cause I had a really funny story about Strom almost getting impaled -”

Yukio looks Shima right in the eyes and says: “Just because we’re partners again it does not make us friends.”

For a second Shima’s face looks weird, like he’s genuinely hurt by that. Which is ridiculous. Shima doesn’t have feelings.

As quickly as the moment happened it passes. Shima shrugs and gives a tired smile.

“Your loss. But, hey, at least get in a selfie with me. And smile this time! That last picture we got had really bad vibes and looking at it makes me want to cry.”

“Then cry,” Yukio says, but when Shima lifts up his camera he manages to give the smallest smile in existence.

Smiling doesn’t really suit his face. His cheeks look too wide. Smiling is Rin’s thing, especially with those fangs. As soon as Yukio sees the picture he wants it deleted.

“It’s awful.”

“It’s not!” Shima argues, but the _fucking look_ on his face shows he thinks it’s even worse than Yukio does. “You’re trying to smile, at least. I mean, it’s a shoddy effort, don’t get me wrong, you look constipated, but it’s a start.”

He’s right.

It’s a start.


End file.
